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by frazzledsoul
Summary: A peek into Rory and Jess's present as they raise their daughter in Philadelphia. Updated infrequently as inspiration arises. Takes place in the A Simple Twist Of Fate timeline. Literati with some JaveJunkie thrown in.
1. Football

_Okay, this is verging out into new fanfic territory for me._

 _This story takes place around the Philadelphia Eagles/Minnesota Vikings game that took place last week. It takes place in the A Simple Twist of Fate timeline, but many, many chapters forth from what I've written so far._

 _In other words, this is a story based on the concept that Jess fathered Rory's child, not the usual suspect._

 _I still intend to finish A Simple Twist Of Fate, and the story actually goes much farther forth in time than the events depicted here. But I wanted to write a story around some of the headlines I saw last week, and since it's impossible to do a Jess POV given how that story is being written, I thought this might go over well as a glimpse into the future of these characters as that story interprets them._

 _So read, enjoy (or not), and leave me a review if you so desire. Bear in mind that I've never even been close to Philadelphia, so if I get some stuff wrong, I really didn't intend it. Also, since I'm from Alabama, I know (and am related to) much crazier sports fans than the ones depicted in this story, so I mean no offense by it._

 _January 2018_

Jess didn't exactly intend to introduce his daughter to professional sports in this manner.

For the most part, he and Rory weren't quite the stereotypical thirtysomething hipster couple that they sometimes appeared to be. Sure, Rory was still occasionally breast-feeding after seven and a half months, and you could find quinoa and kimchi in their fridge stocked next to the baby food and hoagies. They were both writers who ran a book press together, and their baby was leaning to crawl amidst hastily assembled piles of manuscripts and old vinyl records. However, for the most part they didn't have time to painstakingly manage that type of lifestyle. They had stumbled upon their relationship accidentally at a time when neither of them had any sort of clue where their life was head next: a sort of spontaneous joy that seemed to erupt from moment to moment until it began to actually make sense and feel like a happiness that could be permanent.

And then parenthood found them, and what might have seemed like a disaster to an outsider turned out to be the one extra thing needed in order to for them to build a life with each other.

All of the other details of what life used to be like turned out not to matter so much after that.

He'd felt an overwhelming sense of protectiveness start to take hold over him ever since Rory first sprung the news on him at Luke and Lorelai's wedding reception: in the early days it often fought alongside a sense of pure terror, but the protectiveness always won out. It finally took root in his gut the day his daughter came blasting into the world after eleven hours of premature labor, with her jet-black hair, piercing blue eyes, and lungs that could rival a banshee's. He knew then that no matter how scary or confusing or overwhelming anything else could seem, he would always seek to protect her and Rory first.

Which is why he didn't want to bring a little girl who was just now managing to move forward on all fours to an Philadelphia Eagles game.

Jess had lived in Philadelphia for thirteen years. He knew all of its quirks and foibles and assets inside and out, and he knew firsthand just how enthusiastic Eagles fans could be. He didn't really care much for the sport himself – if asked to root for a home team, he usually picked the Philadelphia Flyers, having long ago latched onto the sport as a way to bond with his uncle and newfound cousin – but that enthusiasm often had seemed catching in the best and worst way. He knew firsthand how crazy things could get after the high of a surprise upset.

However, a high-profile investor had supplied them with tickets the week before, and Jess felt it would be unwise not to accept them. Rory's book was coming out in six weeks, and he needed to maintain every connection he currently had in order to make it a success. Soon enough, he got a call from Luke asking when he and Rory planned to visit because Lorelai hadn't seen their grandchild in _four long weeks_ and before he knew it he was inviting them to the game. April got wind of this opportunity and decided to take a weekend off of her coursework and tag along with them.

Strength in numbers counted for something, right?

He started to doubt that decision when April rushed to their seats from a trip to the concession stands, excitedly claiming that one of the more overzealous fans had gotten into a fistfight in the parking lot with a police horse.

His daughter was perched on Lorelai's lap, squealing and cooing at the bustle of jubilant fans around them. Luke was making what was sure to be a futile effort to explain to both of them what was actually happening on the field.

Rory rocked back and forth on her seat, clearly torn between the desire to stay with her child and her curiosity at what exactly was happening in that parking lot.

"Go," Jess told her. "I think the ratio of three adults to one baby makes for pretty good odds."

Rory kissed him on the cheek and scuttled off with April to investigate what was left of the melee.

The rest of the game proceeded fairly uneventfully. April and Rory returned to the stadium after the police had managed to break up the brawl, and settled down next to Jess to pretend to watch the game. The three of them chatted distractedly about other topics, scarfed down pizza and BBQ with Luke and Lorelai (well, Luke took one bite of Lorelai's pizza and opted for buffalo falafel instead, but he got points for trying) and took turns walking the baby around the stadium when she got restless. Jess kept a sharp eye out for anyone who would try to embrace or slap or accidentally shove his wife or daughter while under the spell of sports mania-induced euphoria, but it never even came close to happening.

By the time the Eagles routed the Vikings 38-7, Jess and Rory's daughter had fallen asleep on her grandfather's chest. Luke looked down at the baby with pure love on his face, seemingly uninterested in the outcome of the game. Lorelai was absentmindedly rubbing the back of her husband's neck with one hand and clutching her granddaughter's hand with the other.

Jess looked over at where Rory was lightly dozing on his shoulder, and wondered if it was completely necessary to break all of them out of this cozy domestic bubble.

Ten minutes later, they began the long trek to their car, and Jess suspected it might have been a better idea to stay inside the stadium as long as humanly possible.

"Why do they keep sliding down those poles?" Luke asked him, and gestured across the street to where several intoxicated fans were trying – mostly unsuccessfully – to scamper up every available street pole in sight.

Jess pointed to the pole nearest them, as several fans were taking off at a running distance to leap onto the pole one by one and not making it further than a few feet up.

"They always slather them in Crisco, but it won't stop people climbing on them if they're determined enough," Jess explained. He grabbed Rory by the arm and led her a few further feet away from the herd of people around them.

"Not the word I would use," Luke retorted as he gingerly handed his granddaughter over to Rory.

Jess looked up, remembering several youthful misadventures from his first few years in the city.

"We-el . . ."

"How long ago?" Luke asked.

He'd always known him much too well.

"Six or seven years ago," Jess claimed.

He could tell Luke didn't believe him.

"I almost want to wake her up for this circus," Rory admitted as they slowly made their way through the crowd.

Jess reached for her hand. "You miss it, don't you?"

"A little," Rory replied. She shifted and brought her daughter to rest higher up on her chest. "Journalistic instincts die hard, I guess." She sent a dazzling smile in his direction. "Mostly I just want to share everything with _her,_ though."

Jess squeezed her hand. 'I know the feeling."

He looked around at the people gathered around him – climbing on poles, doing cartwheels and backflips in the middle of the street, making their way towards the enterprising food trucks parked at the end of the street. He gazed at Luke and Lorelai, clutching each other's hands as Lorelai leaned over to whisper something in his ear and giggle when he chuckled in response. He looked behind him to where April was flirting with the one person who had just jumped to the ground after managing to get to the top of the pole, and at the woman whose ring rubbed against his as they walked down the street, their child asleep in her arms.

He'd made his way here over a decade ago, drawn in by the same excitement and exuberance that he looked askance at as a husband and father. There had been plenty of victories and disappointments in his time here as he built a life he was proud of, yet he had gotten to the eventual point where it seemed incomplete in a hazy way he couldn't really define. It wasn't until he was joined by the two brunettes at his side that he had found his genuine place within that bustle of activity, and it had become real in a way that it had never seemed before.

Sometimes what really felt like home came for you when you were least expecting it.


	2. Pizza

_Okay, I know I said I wouldn't follow up on fast forwarding A Simple Twist Of Fate, but I lied. I've been trying to warm up on writing a Philadelphia-centric chapter of that story, and this is me (ineptly) attempting it._

 _I have zero chance of doing this justice, being a failed Birmingham, Alabama hipster myself and never having been to Philadelphia or any American Northeastern city at any point._

 _But I found an article here about a Vodka flavored pizza and I had to write about it._

 _So, standard disclaimer here: this takes place in the A Simple Twist of Fate timeline. Rory's child is fathered by Jess and by March 2018 they have been married for a while. If you want to know more about how that happened, read the regular fic._

 _(If you're curious about what happened to Logan, he married Odette and had a very nice life himself)._

 _So on with the story!_

 **March 2018**

Scarpetta Philadelphia wasn't one of Rory and Jess's usual haunts.

They lived in the historic district of Philadelphia, and they liked it. If they went out to eat (which wasn't often, since they did have an 11-month-old daughter) they usually chose High Street or Capofitto. If they were really adventurous, they went to the Independence Beer Garden. Rory had finally completely weaned their offspring the week before she went on her book tour, and they were slowly getting back to being a couple that occasionally imbibed adult substances.

Very occasionally. There was trouble fitting that around a new book, a book press to run, and a toddler who was beginning to realize her potential for household destruction.

Rory's book had done modestly well. It wasn't a runaway best-seller, but there had been write-ups in a few national papers, and Rory had done some local TV interviews as well. It seemed to be selling better digitally than it did print, which was mostly Rory's doing. Jess had no passion for e-books beyond realizing their necessity. After all, he had spent days taunting Rory about the fact that e-book sales had gone down in their more recent "courtship" days before certain test results had turned their relationship in a completely different direction. Rory understood the format and knew how to market it in a way that he hadn't, and that had definitely been an asset to their business. Despite what almost all of their colleagues had warned them, their business – and relationship – worked better when it had a husband-and-wife team at the wheel as opposed to just him.

Things were looking better for them financially, and both of them began to wonder if they would be better off selling the townhouse and settling down in a neighborhood that was slightly kid-friendlier. The idea of more offspring had been floated a few times, but they couldn't handle it given the cramped space they still existed in. Rory was still very lukewarm at putting aside her pills any time soon: she had handled her new career and motherhood a lot better than she thought she would, but she had heard a few too many of Lane's horror stories about raising twins, and she didn't know if they were up to the challenge of two kids. Luke and Lorelai were invested grandparents (as were Liz and TJ – well, they tried, at least) but they still lived almost four hours away.

Biological issues aside, that topic was tabled for the near future. The baby had been dropped off at Liz's house for the weekend with the implied understanding that she would gravitate over to her other grandmother's the following night, and Rory and Jess were going to sit down at this nice restaurant and consume a pizza marinated in vodka.

And maybe they were going to drink some shots. A lot of shots. It had been a difficult week.

"Are you making us do this to prove you're not a bot?" Jess asked Rory after he had downed the first two shots of vodka and the first slice.

He had expected the taste to have tapered off because the vodka had been baked into the food before it got to them. It hadn't. There was vodka in the cheese. It was in the sauce. It was in the crust. It was everywhere.

His head was beginning to swim. He reached for another slice.

"If I wasn't a bot before, I might be now," Rory retorted as she and Jess clinked shot glasses. She had already polished off three slices of pizza and was starting in on the shots.

They called an Uber afterwards instead of risking getting in their car and ended up repeating the actions that had led to their sudden parenthood on the living room floor.

Sometimes they got a little too carried away with their alone time.

"Did you save me a slice?" Lorelai asked two days later as she handed over her squirming granddaughter.

Rory shook her head, still remembering the fearsome hangover she and Jess had spent most of Saturday recovering from. "It wasn't what I expected."

"First night out in a while, huh?"

Rory brushed her daughter's black hair out of her eyebrows as she squealed. "You could say that."

Lorelai grinned. 'I have a better idea for next time." She whipped out her phone and showed Rory the headline on her web browser

Rory was currently glad that Jess was outside talking with Luke because she knew that he would be incensed.

A Philly's Cheesesteak pizza? At a pizzeria in Queens?

"This is violating the integrity of our city's vaunted food traditions," Rory told her mother.

They quickly made plans to visit there the next time the two of them were alone in New York.


	3. World Series

_So once again we fast-forward in time in the A Simple Twist Of Fate timeline to the present day._

 _I'll probably have the next chapter in the regular story timeline up in the next few days, but it made more sense to me to place a Red Sox story in this particular timeline._

 _So fair warning: there's a bit of an L/L focus in this story. Also, the baby remains unnamed, not because I don't know what her name is (it's not Lorelai, BTW) but because that's a plot point in the main series._

 _So enjoy this bit of family fluff and leave me a review if you so desire._

Luke and Lorelai celebrated the first World Series win by the Red Sox during their time as a romantic couple in the customary adult manner.

They had only been together for a little over a month. Rollicking was expected. And thoroughly enjoyed.

Three years later, it happened while they were broken up. Lorelai turned down a date with Christopher and went to a movie in New Haven with Rory. Even as hard as she was trying – and most of the time succeeding – in convincing herself that this particular relationship was a good idea, she knew she wouldn't be able to avoid those tiny pinpricks of guilt from piercing the protective shell she had built around herself. Christopher had lived in the city who hosted the team that Luke loved, and she knew that she was running too close to the topic at that point to not crumble if she was faced with it. The subject hit too close to home, and it was better to avoid it if at all possible.

Luke watched the game with April, who attempted to remain interested but fell short of matching his level of enthusiasm. Luke didn't mind that much. He had started taking her to Flyers games in Philadelphia a few weekends before then, and that was a passion he could share with both her and Jess. He didn't let himself think about how it might have been different if he had still had Lorelai. At that point, he was firmly ensconced in his own protective shell, focusing only on the people who he knew still needed him. He was quick to bury all thoughts of what might have been.

Six years after that, the jubilant post-win celebration had ended up much the same as the first one had. Luke and Lorelai had been an established couple for six years by that point, and were finally entering a season of their life when it was just them. April was finishing college, Rory was traveling, and Jess had finally finished his unexpected sojourn in Stars Hollow and had returned to Philadelphia to reopen his business. Sometimes an empty house was a blessing, even for a couple who felt as married as he and Lorelai did by that point.

Still, Luke knew as much as Lorelai enjoyed celebrating these wins with him, she was mostly only enjoying the aftereffects. She didn't care that much for the actual game, and this was echoed down through the rest of the family: Jess, Rory, April, even Doula. He wondered if there would ever be a member of the Danes/Gilmore/Mariano brood who would appreciate a Red Sox win as much as he did.

In 2018, he finally found one.

She had dancing blue eyes, jet-black hair paired into pigtails, and at seventeen months old an innate tendency to never be still.

Jess and Rory had spent the weekend at Stars Hollow's Halloween festival, which was held on the weekend before the actual Halloween festivities the following Wednesday. Rory had ditched the witch's costume she had worn to Chestnut Hill's Witches and Wizards festival, but her daughter had come decked out in the baby demon costume she had worn earlier in the week and would wear again for her first round of trick-or-treating in a few days. Lorelai had argued for the thirty-two-year-old pumpkin costume that was stashed away in the hall closet, but Rory declined: the toddler was still too small for it, and she'd rather save it for a year when she could take her daughter trick-or-treating in Stars Hollow. For now, they'd spend Sunday night at Luke and Lorelai's home, watch (or pretend to watch) a little baseball, and head back home in the morning.

Things were just too crazy this year. She and Jess had finally moved into a house of their own in June, and they were still putting the final touches on what was to be their home as a family. Jess's old townhouse had been okay to start out in, but he'd bought it with his last girlfriend and neither of them really felt that it was a permanent place to put down roots for themselves. On top of that, the book press was busy prepping for the last releases of the year and Jess was trying to write a book of his own, something he hadn't attempted since restarting the press five years ago. They'd had to reconfigure the child care arrangement since their daughter was now too boisterous and vocal to come to work with them every day, and had enrolled her in preschool three days a week. As much as Rory reasoned to herself that it was better for all three of them for her little girl to spend some time socializing with kids her own age, she lamented that everything was moving so fast. Her baby wasn't a _baby_ anymore, and part of her still had a hard time adjusting to it.

However, the night of the final game she and Jess experienced a heretofore unknown phenomenon.

Their daughter was quiet.

She sat perched on her grandfather's lap, her eyes glued to the television screen with the same intensity of his, dressed in the miniature Red Sox shirt that Lorelai had dressed her in for the occasion. Occasionally she would point to the TV and squeal "Look, G'Pa!" and would excitedly clap her hands in time to Luke's whoops.

"I haven't seen her this still in months," Jess remarked halfway through the game.

"Appreciate it while you can," Lorelai said as she and Rory momentarily retired to the kitchen for some coffee.

"You're raising a tomboy," Lorelai admonished Rory as they sat down at the table.

"We haven't taken her to any sporting events since January," Rory said in her own defense. "I think we cut it close with that Eagles game, and Jess got worried when it got so crazy on our street after the Super Bowl. I think the hockey addiction's going to be inevitable, but we won't take her to one of those games until at least next year. She plays with her Gritty doll all of the time. I don't think I can fight that one."

"I figured this one would be a born bookworm," Lorelai said.

"I tried," Rory insisted. "I've been reading to her daily almost since I found out about her. I don't think she's going to like books quite as much as Jess and I do, though. She likes to paint and she loves to chase balls around with Jess in the backyard. Go figure."

"Maybe we needed someone in this family who actually likes sports," Lorelai said gently. "Luke's going to have a field day when she gets old enough for T ball."

"I didn't see myself being a softball mom," Rory replied. She took a sip of coffee from her cup. "But nothing about any of this has been anything like I expected it to be." She looked back towards the living room, where her daughter had traded places to climb into Jess's lap and was excitedly squealing as Luke gestured towards the screen. "I don't think that's a bad thing, though."

"Have you thought anything more about what we talked about a while back?" Lorelai asked.

Rory sighed. "It isn't a great time right now," she told her mother. "That discussion's been tabled until we've been married at least a year. I do think about it, though."

"You could wind up with _two_ little sports fanatics," Lorelai told her.

"Maybe," Rory said as she watched her daughter toddle back over to Luke's lap and settle back down in his arms. "It might be time for a new era, though."

By the time the Red Sox beat the Dodgers at 5-1 to take yet another title, the littlest Gilmore offspring had been dozing on and off for the past hour and a half, her little hand clenched in her grandfather's larger one. The whoops and hollers had settled down quite a while back, but the other three adults hadn't wanted to jolt her out of her comfort position.

Besides, her grandfather's chest was as good a place as any to fall asleep on, and she grumpily fought them whenever they tried to move her.

Luke had finally found the baseball buddy he'd been wanting for years, and their inaugural celebration was worth disrupting her sleeping schedule the next day.

The rest of the family knew that there would be many more to come.


End file.
